KRAS S02E01 - Knight and Day
by LyndaBehling
Summary: The new season starts off at top speed! Ian's in trouble and asks for KITT's help. Every employee gets one mission from KITT, ever. What could be so important that Ian would use his now?
1. Chapter 1

**Knight Rider AS Season 2, Episode 1 - Knight and Day**

F.L.A.G Headquarters - Underneath the desert in the vicinity of Arizona

Ian lay on his stomach, laptop open on his pillow. He shared the room with Pierce, but he wasn't around tonight. Nowadays he wasn't around most nights. He stayed up on the top bunk anyway. Even though no one would disturb him, he found more privacy comforting.

Sleep was such a long way off.

He had several tabs open in his browser, a few from Facebook. He was scrolling through his private messages now.

He had a minimal Facebook profile at best, just enough to assure his family that he was still alive. What was left of it, anyway. He had a few great aunts and a set of grandparents scattered around, but the only person he truly kept it up for was Danielle, his sister.

She was older, but only by a year. That didn't stop he from being the biggest big sister she could be. She made it her mission to look out for him when their parents died. She chose to get her GED rather than finish High School, so that she could work and take care of the house while he finished High School early and started taking college courses.

He was at the top of their Private Message feed, from three years ago.

"College would be wasted on me," she'd wrote. "We all know you're the smart one."

His reply was underneath. "We both have brains, you just choose to ignore yours."

"Hey! That's not nice! :p"

"Sorry. -_-"

He switched tabs, to a video she'd posted last year, after he'd joined F.L.A.G. The house had been sold by then and most of the money had gone towards his schooling and paying off debts. Danielle was showing off her new tiny apartment.

"Hey there fam! Just wanted to show of my new 'digs'." She laughed, then pointed the camera away from her face, giving the viewer a walking tour of the bathroom, the kitchenette, and her bedroom. All with narration.

Ian started the video back at the beginning, pausing on her face. She was only twenty-one, but there were deep circles under her eyes and her cheeks were drawn, pulled away from her cheekbones.

He switched tabs and scrolled through their shared messages again. The well wishes and joking around. Was there any hint at all in there about what would happen to her?

Another tab was a picture of his sister's face, smiling wide. Underneath it had some contact information that would reach him. Above it in red was the word MISSING.

He closed that tab, and all the other extra ones, scrolling back down to the bottom of the message feed. "What do you want? There's no money left over from the sale of the house."

He'd hoped his typing could push up the horrible picture that had been sent to him. His sister lying unconscious on the floor, in unknown and sparse surroundings. her hands were bound and she had a large purple bruise on the side of her face.

The message came back quickly. "Danielle has often bragged about your technical skills. She also revealed some of your past computer-related transgressions with a little persuasion. I have a job that I'm sure you'll be able to pull off."

"I'm not in Cali anymore, she must have mentioned that." There was no way Ian was going to tell this monster that he was in a secret underground base in the middle of the desert between Arizona and New Mexico. It was frustrating as all hell, but at that moment there was no way for him to go anywhere to save his sister.

"You won't have to leave your location at all. Everything can be done from a computer. If you do exactly as I say, Danielle will be set free unharmed. She will contact you through video to tell you she is okay with her own mouth, and then you can carry on your simple sibling interactions."

Ian took a breath before typing back. "And if I refuse, you'll kill her, right?"

"I will not take her life, but you both will wish I had." The next message came up right after. "I will break her." Then the next. "I will record everything I do to her carefully, then she will be returned, deaf and blind. The video will be uploaded to a public server that anyone can access, and then it will be spread."

"Everyone will see the torture and pain your sister will go through, except for her. She will be trapped in her own mind, unable to hear or see anything new ever again, till the last things she has seen and heard torture her to insanity."

"There are so many things that are worse than the reprieve of death. You have twelve hours to respond, before I start."

Ian slammed his laptop shut, breathing quickly. He wiped his eyes and gripped his hair while his nose dripped. He wiped it on his sleeve.

Behind the laptop, a thick blue folder sat on his pillow. On the cover was the logo for Knight Industries. He grabbed it and opened it to a placed he had bookmarked. He read over it carefully, because it was his only salvation.

xxxXXXxxx

"There's a smuggling ring operating in New Mexico," Pierce offered halfheartedly.

"Don't sound that way, Pierce," Kat admonished him. "People need help."

"Yeah, but can't they have more interesting troubles?" He swiped through the files on his new touch screen. The large monitor above them on the wall replicated the one in front of him.

He sat at his brand new metal desk (reinforced), in front of the new panel computer David had bought for him, to replace the one KARR had shot to oblivion just a few months ago. Touchscreens were flashy, but he found he could get used to flashy quite easily.

"All jobs that the Crawler finds are welcome," KITT said from his platform. "She knows our capabilities and what jobs they would apply to."

"We always deal with smugglers," Pierce said petulantly. Then he looked up. "Wait, 'she'? You said last week that the Crawler preferred to be called 'he'."

"That was last week. This week they are 'she'," KITT responded. "The Crawler is genderfluid."

Pierce frowned. "Both you and the Crawler have been spending too much time on Tumblr."

The Crawler was a simple AI that Pierce had written based off of Charles original code. Its function is to search and understand news postings and social media and understand the context, so it could find jobs for Kat and KITT. KITT was required to have five years of testing in varied environments before he could be put to any commercial use. Year one was just behind them, but they still had a long way to go. They needed jobs. Lots of different ones.

So the Crawler was created, but it wasn't as deep as KITT himself, which might be why it had trouble assigning more human definitions to itself. That's what Pierce thought, anyway.

"I have a job for you, KITT."

Everyone turned to Ian, who was standing up at his desk. His eyes were rimmed with red.

Pierce felt concern for his intern, but at the same time also a deep confusion. "You're not… allowed do that?" He ended with a questioning tone because he wasn't completely sure. "We're employees…"

"Check your contract again," Ian told him. "We all get one job from KITT. Each." He looked over at the car. "I need your help."

Kat turned her eyes up to David, who stood on the metal walkway outside his office door. His hands were on the railing. He didn't say anything to deny what Ian was saying, so she took it as consent. She looked back at Ian. "What are the details?"

Ian's left hand was clenched into a fist. "My sister has been kidnapped."

Surprise ran through the team like an electrical current. David spoke then. "Because of your affiliation with FLAG?"

Ian shook his head. "Pierce told you about my past." He looked up at his boss. "I was a hacker. Pierce found me because I'd broken into one of Knight Industries' servers. He caught me, but I guess I impressed him." He shot a glance at Pierce.

Ian drew in a shaky breath. "I was doing it for kicks, I promise. I wasn't working for anyone else. Somehow Pierce wasn't the only one who noticed me. That other person wants me to try again, to break into Knight Industries for them. I don't know who they are, but they have my sister."

"What do they want from Knight Industries? Money?"

Ian quailed under David's gaze, but didn't look away. "They want information on the Pawns Project."

David's expression turned icy. "What do you know about the Pawns Project?"

"Nothing, I swear." Ian's voice wavered. "I don't even remember seeing it the first time I went in. I was just playing around, honest. Everyone brags about Knight Industries security, and I just wanted to shut them up." His voice faltered, turning weak. "No system is safe…" His eyes were begging. "Please, help me get Danielle back…" Tears streaked his cheeks as he stood there, but he didn't sniffle. "Please… I just want her to be safe…"

"As long as we get her back safe, nothing else matters?" David asked sternly.

"Nothing else," Ian assured him.

"And you'll do anything?"

"Anything."

David shifted his gaze to Kat. "You have your mission, then."


	2. Chapter 2

**Knight Rider AS Season 2, Episode 1 - Knight and Day**

Part 2

"Ian, you wasted your request," K.I.T.T told him as the young intern pushed his chair over to the car's hood. He had his red laptop under his arm. It was the only thing in the room that had miraculously survived K.A.R.R's attack. "If this has to do with Knight Industries, then he has to call on me to help."

Ian shook his head sadly. "No, he doesn't. He could ignore the guy that took Dani and nothing would change for him or the company. If he did decide to do something, Knight Industries has other resources they could use." He looked directly at the car's scanner bar. "I wanted you and Kat on this mission, not one of David's flunkies or spies."

"And why is that?" Kat asked from the Driver's side. The door was open and she was leaning on it while watching Ian's face.

He locked eyes with her. "Because you two will bring Dani home. My request isn't to stop that guy or his plans, your mission is to make sure my sister is safe."

Kat nodded. "Well, let's get started then."

Ian opened his laptop and rested it on K.I.T.T's hood. "I'm sending you an email I prepared last night, KITT. It contains all the information I have about Dani and her kidnapper. He or she took over Dani's Facebook account and has been messaging me from there."

Kat heard a beep from her phone as well. She swiped it open and placed it down on K.I.T.T's hood. A blue line appeared around it and a larger replication of her screen appeared on the windshield. She swiped through the screenshots Ian had sent her, making a noise of dismay when she reached the picture of Danielle bound and injured. "I hate to ask, but are you certain that she's still alive?"

Ian's hands paused over his keyboard. "They sent me a video, I think I saw Dani move a little in it."

Kat felt great sympathy for him. "I understand if you don't want me watching it, but send it to KITT so he can analyze it. He should be able to tell if your sister is alive in it."

"Thanks Kat." Tears formed around his eyes, but they didn't fall. He took a deep breath. "The kidnapper wants me to send them everything from here, but-"

Kat turned and interrupted him. "Oh, we're going to San Diego, Ian. there's no way we're not getting your sister personally."

Ian let out a pent up breath that had a whisper of a smile. "Good, then I'm going with you."

"No, that is not happening," Kat snapped back at him. "You stay here where it's safe."

Ian opened his mouth to protest when Rei appeared next to him. "Katherine, you have to take Ian with you," she said stubbornly. "KITT's scanners are good, but neither of you have met Danielle in person. You need Ian there to make sure you're getting the right girl back."

Ian looked over at her. "Rei, when did you become my best friend?" he asked with a weak laugh.

She ruffled his hair. "Always be friends with the hacker, didn't you know? Besides, it drives Kai nuts."

Kai was indeed at his workstation, watching the group by the car intently. His work lay before him, half done. "Why is he so worked up?"

"He thinks I want to date you," Rei said simply.

Ian's eyebrows knit together. "You're engaged though."

Rei shrugged. "That's why it bothers him so much." Her expression became more serious. "You make sure to be safe. Dani won't want you getting hurt just for her, okay?"

"Okay." Ian nodded. She beamed at him then retreated back to her own workstation. "Thanks Rei."

"Anytime!"

Ian turned back to Kat, who was frowning indignantly. "You're not coming," she insisted.

"Except… I have to. I'm the only one who can make sure Dani is safe."

Kat groaned in defeat. "We better get you fitted with some body armor then."

xxxXXXxxx

After the morning rush, the kitchen could be classified as a trash dump. That didn't daunt Sam in the least, however. No matter what challenge lay before him, he would tackle it head on. The trash took up an entire black bag. The pile of dishes were daunting, but he knew they wouldn't be so bad.

Once he could get up there.

He frowned at his wheelchair, specifically at the crank on the side that would not turn for him. "Oh, come on."

Carmen walked in then and noticed his trouble. "Is it stuck again?"

"I don't understand, Pierce just fixed this thing." Sam let out a frustrated breath through his nose. He ran a hand through his short blond hair, ruffling it till it stood up in the front.

"Well, there you go." Carmen knelt down by the chair and inspected the crank. "He put it back on too tight." She reached into one of the deep pockets on her coveralls and pulled out a small wrench. She wrestled with the bolt for a bit till it loosened. "Sit back," she told him.

He leaned back in his chair while she turned the crank. The braces around his waist and legs shifted as he was forced upright out of the chair. He was still attached to the chair, but now he was tall enough to do the dishes.

"Thanks Carmen," he said with a sigh. "I'm still getting used to this." He turned on the water and let it run over some of the stickier plates.

"We really should load up the dishwasher ourselves," she commented. "Instead of throwing everything in the sink."

"Nah, it's fine. Some of this stuff needs a good rinsing." He gave her his trademark charming smile. "You guys eat like bears." He loaded up the dishwasher slowly, but steadily. Carmen watched him like a hawk. "Careful, Pierce might get jealous with you staring a hole through me," he teased.

"Pfft." She made further noises of disbelief. "How can you joke around so easily?" She demanded. "How on earth do you look so cheerful doing dishes?"

He looked at her over his shoulder, as he wasn't currently able to turn around. "What are you talking about? They're just dishes." He closed the dishwasher and locked it. Then he grabbed the crank on the side of his chair and released the tension. He landed in the seat with a jolt. "Oh come on."

"You were supposed to be KITT's driver!" she exclaimed in frustration. "And now you're downgraded to busboy! We can't even get you a frickin' chair that works! How are you taking all of this so good?"

He arched a brow as he moved his chair over to the dishwasher's control panel. "What do you expect me to do? Sink into a spiraling depression?"

Here she faltered. "I mean, I don't want THAT. But you look so well adjusted, so quickly, and I'm worried." She bit her lip.

He started up the washer and wheeled over to her. "Carmen, trust me when I say this. That all already happened, and I'm good now. I spent a year in darkness." His blue eyes were wide. "Who cares that I lost my legs? I've got my hands back!" He waved them to make his point. "I have my mouth, and my eyes, and my ears. Losing my legs to get all that back is worth it in my opinion."

Her expression darkened. "You remember everything?"

His eyes flitted to the side. "Not EVERYTHING, but some things, yeah. Jesus Christ, I pointed a gun at a kid." His hand went through his hair again. He rubbed the back of his head. "And sometimes my hearing would turn off, or my eyesight. Or both. I would be doing things, but I had no idea what." His eyes were on the floor. "It was bad. Really bad.."

Carmen's nails dug into her palm. "I wish I could kill KARR. Again."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, David kinda took that away from you. I mean, that's what I heard."

She looked down at him, her expression pitiful. "You don't belong here. Not like this."

She was short enough that he could reach her face from his chair. He palmed both of her cheeks. "Never, ever, say that." His expression was steady, but his voice was stern. "This is the only place I belong. FLAG gave me a purpose, and I am sticking around till the very end."

"What about Kat?" she asked.

"Kat doesn't need me. Not anymore. Not for a very long time." He dropped his hands, placing them on his wheel guards. "She's the main character now, and I'm lucky to be on the sidelines."

His face was so sincere it made her heart clench. This was how he truly felt. When he turned and wheeled out of the room, she whispered to herself "FLAG doesn't deserve you, we never did."


	3. Chapter 3

**Knight Rider AS Season 2, Episode 1 - Knight and Day**

Part 3

Ian sat in the back seat instead of up front with Kat. His laptop was open and his face was grim with concentration. Kat peered up at him through the rearview mirror. "It's okay, bud. We'll get through this."

"I know we will," Ian said blandly, his eyes on his screen.

Kat felt that was an odd response, but she kept going. "What are you up to back there?" K.I.T.T was doing most of the driving right now, so she was good to check up on their client.

"I'm hacking into Knight Industries," he replied, keeping the same tone.

Her brow furrowed. "Why on Earth are you doing that?"

Ian didn't look up. "This creephole wants info on Pawns, or whatever, so I need to go in with something to trade."

Kat frowned into the mirror. "We are not trading industrial secrets. I don't know what that project is, but if that guy is willing to kidnap someone to access it, it's bad news."

Ian sighed, his hands hitting the keyboard. Finally he looked up. "Look, Kat, when a kidnapper wants a ransom, you go in with a briefcase full of dough. You don't give it to them, but you need to show the goods, okay?"

Kat's frown only deepened. "This is something else entirely. We can't take any chances with this. You can go in with an empty thumb drive or something and KITT and I will do the rescuing."

Ian looked like someone who was practicing great patience. "I don't want to rag on you, Kat, but your last kidnapping rescue didn't go that great."

Now she was indignant. "Hey, I brought Alex back safe and sound."

Ian sighed. "I meant the one before that. When David was kidnapped by KARR. You lost KITT that day and KARR got ahold of his body."

"Well, I wasn't exactly expecting KARR to have taken over Sam's body and kidnap KITT, was I?" she asked hotly. The blow to her pride still stung, even though she'd probably saved David's life that day. It was a small comfort.

"Yeah, and we have no idea what's going to happen today. We know nothing about this guy, or what he's capable of. We don't know what weapons or technology they're packing. They might even know I'm part of FLAG, I can't say. Everything about this is a total mystery."

It was at this time K.I.T.T injected himself into the conversation. "I've determined that the location the kidnapper sent us for the exchange is the same they sent the messages from. Though I can find no other information about them." There was a small pause. "With Kat's permission, I can help you get into Knight Industries' servers, to get some usable information for the trade."

Ian looked over at the dash. "You can help me?"

"I won't know until I try, but most of Knight Industries is accessible to me."

Ian turned his attention back to Kat. He didn't say anything, and her hands tightened on the wheel. "This is an awful, terrible, idea. We could all be fired for this."

"We don't need any actual files," Ian assured her. "Just enough code words and jargon so it looks like we do have something."

Kat's leg twitched up and down as she decided. "Okay, fine. You better not get caught, KITT."

Ian's screen came to life in front of him as K.I.T.T remotely took over the hacking program Ian had written. It wasn't pretty to look at, just tables of lines and numbers. They sped by as K.I.T.T ran through the encryptions. Bars of text began turning red.

"KITT, wait," Ian cautioned him. "It's not working, you're gonna get blocked."

"Don't worry, I'm winging it," K.I.T.T assured him blithely.

"This is definitely not something you should wing!" Ian exclaimed as several gray warning tabs opened up in front of him. Each one dinged pleasantly, but the sound was ominous to him.

The next second his screen turned white. The program had crashed. Ian's shoulders slumped helplessly. "Aw, KITT…"

"My apologies, Ian. I had to crash the program before your IP was traced," K.I.T.T told him. During this entire exchange Kat sat quietly, grinding her teeth, her eyes staring straight ahead.

Ian rested his forehead on a few fingers. His laptop was restarting on its own. "Don't worry about it, I knew it was a long shot."

"This is the only file I could find." A page appeared on the window next to Ian. It was a single screenshot of a heavily redacted email. Black bars covered most of the text, including the sender and recipient. The title of the email read: P.A.W.N.S to be Decommissioned Until Further Notice.

"That was exhilarating," K.I.T.T told Kat while Ian scanned the few lines of text that was legible.

Kat glanced at the dash, her expression worried. "Is everything okay?"

"I wasn't detected, but it was more difficult than anticipated. I've visited Knight Industries' servers many times for FLAG related purposes, but this was entirely different."

"How so?"

K.I.T.T's display wavered. "I don't think I have the capacity to properly explain it in terms you can understand."

"Try your best."

"FLAG is an incredibly secret and restricted part of Knight Industries, and only some people can access it. I have almost full access because I am the biggest component of our operations, so I can access FLAG's servers however I wish. PAWNS is not part of FLAG, but it is also not like FLAG. There are no dedicated servers for information. It is simply broken up into different sections of Knight Industries, on many servers. There are no original files, from what I could find, merely references in other projects. It's as if the entire project was erased, and only the footprint is left behind."

"Maybe it's not something Knight Industries is working on anymore, so they don't need it?" Kat suggested.

"If that were the case, then it would be filed on the archives servers. Knight Industries doesn't delete any past project, everything from the past fifty years is saved and backed up multiple times."

Kat felt a sinking pit in her stomach. "Then… why was it deleted?"

"Someone died," Ian said quietly from the backseat.

Kat's head snapped back up, her eyes on the mirror. "What?"

The young intern's expression was a mixture of grim and sadness. "PAWNS was closed down after someone died during the project. It doesn't say who, or how, or why, but that's when the order was given."

Kat's unsettled feelings increased. "Things happen sometimes. Accidents, even tragedies. What kind of death happened where Knight Industries tried to erase it like it never existed?"

Ian swiped the page away. "That's none of our business. Hopefully this is enough to convince the kidnapper." He closed his eyes. "My only concern is getting Dani back."

"Right, we still have a mission to complete." Kat shook herself. The next exit lead her to California. They only had another couple of hours to get the rest of their plan together.


End file.
